Greetings from Edmonds

On Sunday morning, Adam and Katherine made scrambled eggs, veggie sausages, and pancakes -- some with chocolate chips, some with blueberries, with Daniel's mix -- for brunch, then we went to play miniature golf at High Trek Adventures, which also has laser tag, axe throwing, and a big rope climbing and zip wire complex. So there were lots of happy kids around us and dogs were allowed, meaning that Pepper could come with us! 

Then we drove to Edmonds to visit the beach at Brackett's Landing. Many years ago, we left for the Olympic Peninsula from the ferry launch there, and today we got to watch one of the ferries unload cars while seagulls tried to catch crabs in the tide pools. Afterward we drove back to Adam and Katherine's house and ordered excellent Greek food from Jasmine Kitchen. Now we're watching the South Park marathon with older son at his apartment! 

Greetings from Snoqualmie

We had another delightful busy day on Saturday starting again by meeting Daniel to go have bagels at Adam's house. Then we drove out toward Snoqualmie, stopping on the way to visit Julia, who is the older sister of Daniel Wigle, Adam's best friend from elementary school. Julia had a baby a few weeks ago (we got to meet her before her grandparents did, which I feel a little guilty about!) and lives at a Girl Scout camp near lovely wilderness. Since her kids aren't fully vaccinated, we hung out in her backyard and met her cats and rabbit. 

Then we headed out to the spectacular Snoqualmie Falls, which had a crowded parking lot but plenty of space on the bridge and paths, plus the flowers and regional delicacy store at Salish Lodge. Back at Adam's house, we shared cheese with Pepper and played Sushi Go before dinner -- we had Indian food delivered from Namasthe, which was excellent -- then we left Katherine and Adam to go running and walk the dog while we returned downtown and watched cooking shows with Daniel at his apartment for a while. More tomorrow! 

Greetings from Discovery Park

I have had a lovely but extremely tiring day that involved bagels at Adam and Katherine's house before walking the 4.4 miles of the trail at Discovery Park through the woods and down the cliffs to the beach, where we saw herons, crabs, and lots of anemones but no seals, plus a visit to Ballard Locks, where so many boats were headed through that the bridges to the fish ladder (probably pretty empty at this time of year) were closed. 

Then we picked up Katsu Burgers and milkshakes for dinner (honey miso mustard and green tea for me respectively) and hung out for a couple of hours at Adam's before coming back to our hotel to watch cooking shows with Daniel. It was my dad's birthday, and while we only talked to him for a few minutes, we also did some of the worst family singing in history recorded for him. I'm falling asleep over the keyboard, so more tomorrow! 

 

Discovery Park, the start of the Loop Trail 

 

High above the beach 

 

Puget Sound at low tide 

 

Happy place at the beach, surrounded by anemones 

 

 

West Point Lighthouse 

 

At Ballard Chittenden Locks (fish ladder blocked by lots of boats passing through) 

 

Back at Adam's house with Katsu Burgers and milkshakes for dinner with Katherine who had to work and missed the adventuring

Greetings from Kirkland

I got to spend all day Thursday with my kids! We met Daniel in Belltown, drove to Bellevue to pick up fancy bagels, and went to Adam and Katherine's house to eat them while Pepper got used to us. Then we all went to Marymoor Park, which has a huge offleash dog park and a walk along the river where we saw nesting herons, ducklings, and beaver lodges. It started to rain while we were there, so after a couple of miles of walking, we went back to Adam's house for a while to eat popcorn before going out to the trails at Bridle Trails State Park, where we saw many 200-year-old Douglas firs and cedar trees plus banana slugs! We drove into Kirkland for a bit of a walk near the waterfront and dinner at Cactus, which has the phenomenal butternut squash enchiladas and cinnamon churros we have enjoyed on other trips to the area. A few photos of Adam's house, Marymoor, Bridle Trails, and Kirkland: 

Greetings from Seattle

We spent Wednesday packing, preparing, and flying to Seattle, where after an uneventful flight with a row-mate who slept the entire way and we watched Crimson Peak, we have finally seen Daniel after nearly a year and a half! We are currently eating bagels with him because we didn't get food on the plane and are ravenous! More with Adam, girlfriend, and granddog tomorrow! 

Poem for Wednesday and Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

Dislocation
By Simon Constam

I envy those who envy me for traveling.
Sometimes I sit on a foreign street in a busy cafe,
imagining you wishing you were here,
feeling for the first time the thrilling flush
of wanting to be elsewhere,
the frisson of happiness that wishes bring.
And so I sit quietly knowing that now
it’s time to figure out just what it is
I meant to do here.

 -------- 

I had piles of things to get done on Tuesday, some of which were trivial and got done, some of which were pretty important and did not get done, but it's all going to be fine at least for a week. It was quite warm and the cicadas were quite loud, phaser fire outside the house all day, a nice day to walk and to run into neighbors and their kids now that we can talk about the cicada invasion instead of the virus. 

I watched Voyager's excellent "Dreadnought" with my Trekkie friend group, then we watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which isn't as good as the first three but is a lot better than the fourth -- I love Carina and I really love the cameos even though I don't buy for a second one person's supposed long-term fate. From Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden on Saturday, late spring flowers: 

Poem for Tuesday and Fallsmead Spring

Archipelagic
By R.A. Villanueva

Not vinegar. Not acid. Not
sugarcane pressed to mortar by
fist, but salt: salt, the home taste; salt,
the tide; salt, the blood. Not Holy

Ghost, but a saint of coral come
to life in the night crossing a
field of brambles and thorns, the camps
of pirates beat back to the bay

with hornets. Not Santo Niño.
And not a belt of storms, but this:
girls singing, an avocado
in each open palm, courting doves;

a moth drawn to the light of our
room you take to be your father.

-------- 

I had to get up early Monday to get the bathroom inspected by repair people, so I am sleepy now. My day was mostly chores anyway: laundry, online shopping, organizing some stuff in the kitchen. My mom stopped by on her way home from lunch with friends, and I talked to a neighbor for a while. 

After dinner we watched Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, my least favorite of the five films -- we go from a trilogy that centers on a girl who wants to be a pirate to one that's all about men and their expectations of women, even mermaids. From Fallsmead Park on Sunday: 

Greetings from Fallsmead

It was quite hot on Sunday and the cicadas were very loud! We did a bunch of chores in the morning, had hummus and pita for lunch, and went to Fallsmead Park, which a friend who lives in walking distance had told me had a family of geese with rapidly growing goslings. In fact, there were two families -- one with slightly awkward adolescent goslings, one with younger fluffy newborns whom my friend told me she hadn't seen yet. We also ran into the husband and daughter of another friend whom I've only seen on Zoom in the past year and we saw many turtles, red-winged blackbirds, and more cicadas. 

 

We had dinner with my parents; since we won't be around on my father's birthday, we picked up food from Not Your Average Joe's and ate it while Phil Mickelson was becoming the oldest man to win a PGA Championship. Then we came home for the hilarious Cuban Missile Crisis/Harvard football episode of Legends of Tomorrow, which was hilariously retro, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which has some flaws compared to the first two but I love the female power (Elizabeth Swann, Pirate King) and I really love the scene in which the pirates of the whole Empire turn on British imperialism!